Guests at the book party for “House of Outrageous Fortune” on the 36th floor of the city’s most expensive apartment building, 15 Central Park West, never felt safer — four bodyguards were protecting them.

The book’s author, Michael Gross, told his friends, “I’ve been to parties here before, but this is the first time I know of that the hosts were made to hire a four-man security detail for five hours for a two-hour cocktail party.”

The condominium’s management insisted on the high-priced protection after some “schoolyard bullies” in the building first tried to force the party’s cancellation.

One hedge-fund manager called the party’s host, political cartoonist Ranan Lurie, and suggested he back out given that some neighbors were upset Gross, a contributor to The Post, had revealed details about their apartments and their pasts.

Lurie — an Israeli war hero who parachuted into Egypt behind enemy lines during the Six Day War — was not intimidated.

He told his complaining neighbor how Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, once threatened to rip out his heart and eat it.

“It was a very civilized conversation,” Lurie told me.

“House of Outrageous Fortune” by Michael Gross

Enjoying a foggy view of the park below were Ambassador Ido Aharoni (the current Consul General of Israel in New York), Gay and Nan Talese, Caroline Hirsch, Denise LeFrak, Leonard and Allison Stern, Ed Rollins, Dana Hammond, Asher Edelman. and party co-hosts Wendy Sarasohn and Randi Schatz, publisher of Avenue.

Conspicuously absent were neighbors Denzel Washington, Sting, Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Loeb, whose spokeswoman told me, “Dan did nothing to interfere with the party and just wonders why he wasn’t invited.”